Bangladesh brouhaha too much for SCEA; company cites "social responsibility" as motivation to delete all references to mid-Asian country from SOCOM storyline.

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A few days after Chinese news service Xinhua reported that the government of Bangladesh was irate over the portrayal of its country in the upcoming PlayStation 2 tactical shooter SOCOM 3, Sony has announced it will give in to Bangladeshi demands. A Sony spokesperson told GameSpot that "we have decided to remove any reference to Bangladesh from the final version of SOCOM 3."

"In a recent prototype, it has come to our attention that one of the game's missions may have offended some communities due to its setting in Bangladesh," said the spokesperson. "The SOCOM franchise has never depicted any government or country as a terrorist operation, and any depiction of independent terrorist groups is purely from a fictional standpoint. Within the storyline of SOCOM 3, there has never been any reference to Bangladesh supporting, or harboring terrorists and/or other criminal activities."

Yesterday, GameSpot reported that the government of Bangladesh was angry over what it alleged was a portrayal of its country as a terrorist state in SOCOM 3. The country threatened to sue Sony if all references to Bangladesh were not removed from the Zipper Interactive-developed game.

SOCOM 3 should be ready for release this fall, sans Bangladesh settings.